


To Save Myself

by Picklepelt



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 20:18:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4235205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Picklepelt/pseuds/Picklepelt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Patrick, Elisa, Megan, and Pete are invited to an exclusive look in the Museum of Natural History, they get to see the world's first ever time machine. Patrick needs to go back in time to tell his younger self that he has it all wrong, that life is worth living, and that he shouldn't hurt himself. How far will Patrick go to save himself?</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Save Myself

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, so this is my first fanfiction. I apologize for the beginning, I just needed to get it out of the way. If you have any sugesstions for me, please let me know! I appreciate the constructive criticism. Thank you for taking the time to read my story!

     “And over here we have a rare, full skeleton of a velociraptor,” our tour guide was telling us.

     Elisa’s eyes were glowing. She loved science and history. She was elated when she heard that we had been invited to a special look at the Museum of Natural History, it was only a small group of celebrities. I was kind of confused at all the people that had shown up. The museum must have invited quite a few people, but not everyone thought it would be worth it. Taylor Swift had shown up with her new boyfriend, but I wasn’t really sure what his name was, and I’m not sure that it was really necessary, he was going to be replaced in two weeks anyway. I’m not really sure why they had invited her, I’m not sure what her interests were, but she seemed to enjoy taking selfies with her boyfriend in front of every exhibit. Megan was holding onto Pete’s arm, while Pete was looking at everything with wide eyes, trying to take it all in. I was so happy for him. Megan and he were such a good match, they made each other happy, and Megan loved Bronx like her own whenever he stayed with them. Saint was made up of only good qualities from them both.

     “So now I ask that everybody puts their cell phones away,” our tour guide suddenly looked concerned as she went over to a pair of heavy doors. “There will no pictures taken inside this room, and I please ask that you keep this secret to yourself.”

     Taylor slowly put her phone away in her purse, and her dark red lips were pushed together in a straight line. The whole crowd fell silent. Elisa looked at me with wide eyes.

     “What is it?” She whispered to me. I have no idea.

     Our tour guide pushed open one of the doors. We slowly walked into the room and stood in awe. She shut the door and made her way back to the front of the room. “This,” she said with a smile. “Is the world’s first ever time machine. And you all are the first group of spectators to see it.”

     “This is…” Taylor took a step forward. “A load of crap! Do you really think that we would believe this?”

     “Well, the most experienced U.S. scientists just finished it,” our tour guide looked taken aback. “It hasn’t been tested, it will be early tomorrow. It is farther than a prototype.”

     “Yeah…right,” she turned around and left with her boyfriend close behind her. I remembered how many movies Pete and I had watched together about travelling back in time. We had seen way too many Doctor Who episodes and we knew almost every line in Back to the Future, but this time machine didn’t look like a car or a police call box. It kind of looked like a fair ride. Pete and I smiled at each other.

     “This is so cool!” Pete walked up as close as he could to the velvet ropes that separated him from the new piece of technology that had only ever been dreamed about.

     I was so distracted by all the new thoughts and scenarios, I didn’t realize the crowd shrinking until it was just the four of us. It wasn’t until I was in the car with Elisa that I actually voiced what was racing through my brain.

     “We need to use it,” I said flatly.

     “What?” she looked away from the road to my face for a second.

     “I need to use the time machine,” I swallowed and pushed out the rest of my stupid idea. “I need to use it to tell my old self that I’ll be fine. I need to tell him that he can’t hurt himself, that he has it all wrong. He just needs to work through it.”

     “Patrick,” she said softly. “That is so sweet of you, but it just doesn’t seem possible.”

     “We’ll have Pete distract security,” I had put too much thought into this plan. “He won’t ask me why. He’s always looking for an opportunity to act like an idiot. And he owes me one from last tour when he had that extra drink when I told him not to. He threw up all over me. Joe and Andy laughed so hard.” I shuddered remembering the memory.

     Somehow, later that night, my amazing wife and I were all dressed in black and at the back window of the room that had the time machine.

     “Okay, so Pete said that he would text me when he’s running down the hallway with security chasing after him,” Never in my life did I ever think I would say those words, but Pete was wild like that.

    “We’re crazy,” Elisa breathed with a smile on her face. She looked beautiful, even if we were about to break into a museum to use the nation’s new jewel.

    “You love crazy,” I smiled back. She was amazing.

     “That’s why I married you.”

     We heard a shrill scream and then a series of crashes. Not long after, my phone vibrated with a text from Pete. The two of us jumped through the window of the room and just stood in front of the time machine.

     “Does it work?” Elisa breathed.

     “It has to,” I let out a sigh. “This is just too important.” I rested my hand on the velvet rope that separated me from it. I heard another loud bang down the hallway. We had better go soon. I grabbed the velvet rope and unlatched it from the stand and walked through to the time machine. There was just enough room for two. When we were sitting in the seats, there was a small keypad in front of us that had a space for the month, day, and year. I used a shaky finger to punch in the numbers. I knew exactly where and when to go. The night of May 3rd, 2005, the night I started to have second thoughts about my life. I looked up from the keypad expecting to see a flash of light, maybe a swirl of colors, but we were already there. We were outside of the building that caught everyone’s attention when they drove or walked by. The flashing lights and the pumping music could be seen and heard from blocks away. But of course the party needed to be huge. It had been the night From Under the Cork Tree had been released, the night where our careers took off. What I hadn’t known that night, was that the people would actually love me just as much as Pete and the others, that my biggest critic was myself.

     We walked inside the building and it was exactly like I had remembered it, the heavy smoke, the smell of drinks, the flashing lights, and of course the loud music. The heart wrenching memory, something that I had never forgotten was the huge crowd of girls that were dancing around my best friend, and Pete soaking up every second of it, because for him, the praise, the attention, never stopped. And then there was the twenty year old that no one looked at, sitting in the corner. _Me._ I had taken my glasses off, so maybe it would take the pain away, the image was unclear, and maybe it wasn’t really happening. I had heard too many girls scream his name, I didn’t care if he was still my best friend. I had had enough. I stood and watched my younger self, sitting in the corner with a red plastic cup filled with something that had lost my interest. It would just add to the bitter taste in my mouth. My voice was filling everyone’s ears, the music was the main attraction, other than Pete. I knew that I was nothing without Pete, my voice was just noise without his words. I saw it spread across Young Patrick’s face. He set down his cup and started to walk away from the crowd. You couldn’t see it, but I knew he had tears in his eyes. I followed him, but stayed a ways away, just so he couldn’t see me.

     “Hey, you’re Patrick Stump,” a lady stopped him in the hallway. I remember how my eyes lit up at the sound of my name on someone else’s tongue.

     “Yeah, I am-“ Young Patrick was cut off.  

     “Do you know where we can find Pete Wentz?” I watched my own shoulders fall, and my eyes became glazed over again. I watched myself in sadness. This is what my life used to be like.

     “Yeah, he surrounded by a bunch of other desperate girls,” Young Patrick said flatly. “Shouldn’t be that hard to find.”

     He walked away before he could hear her respond. I chased after him. I knew right where he was headed.

     “Excuse me, sorry,” I gently pushed the speechless lady to the side.

     When I got to the bathroom, the door was already closed. I was seconds late. I ran up to the door and pounded my fist as hard as I could on the door.

     “Kid!” I was trying to yell over the loud music. “Kid! Open up the door! Now! Please, kid!”

     There was nothing. No sound. No movement.

     “Kid!” I screamed as loud as I could and brought down my fist for one last knock. “Patrick!”

     I stopped. It was probably too late. I remembered myself holding the piece of glass against my wrist. I stepped back and let out a deep breath. I turned to leave, when I saw the doorknob move. The minute I saw just a glimpse of his tearstained eyes, I shoved him back into the bathroom and locked the door.

     “Hey, what the heck do you think you’re doing?” His eyes were red and puffy, but they were also angry.

     “Kid, I could ask you the same thing,” I looked down at the broken bottle next to the sink, then to the broken shard in his hand.

     “You wouldn’t understand,” he looked away and sat down on the floor.

     “But, I do,” I knelt down next to him. He looked up at me as a tear ran down his cheek.

     “Oh yeah?” he sniffed and wiped his nose. He looked way younger than twenty. “Like what?”

     “I’m a musician. I write some of my own stuff, but I mostly just sing the words my best friend writes for me. I felt like everyone liked him better than me, like I’d be nothing without him. I felt invisible,” I watched his eyes widen with disbelief and hope.

     “Really? That’s exactly how I feel,” he let out a sob and just fell forward into my arms. I don’t know how long we sat there on the bathroom floor. A party happening for his work, our work, and he couldn’t see how talented he was. Suddenly I felt guilty. He was me. He had been desperate and lonely enough to fall into the arms of a stranger that he would never know was actually him.

     “Now listen to me, very carefully,” He pulled out of my arms and wiped away his tears. “This is only the beginning of your career. You are going to tour the world and meet more people than you believe. Your fan base will remind you every day that you are needed.”

     “That’s a nice thought, but I don’t really have that many fans—,” Young Patrick started to say.

     “I know that’s what you think, but your fan number can only increase, right? You are going to perform in front of the president. You are going to sell millions of albums and play more sell-out shows than you could ever imagine. And if you wanted, you could even make it as a solo artist. You have three incredible guys that wouldn’t trade you for anything else in the world, even your best friend, who seems to be all about him all the time. Even when you guys fight, you still create amazing music. You will always stick together through it all. Sometimes,” I sucked in a breath, remembering the hard day Pete hard presented the idea. “Sometimes, you all just need a break to do your own thing. I know that you feel like you would be nothing without Pete, but you bring his words to life, you give them more dimension. I know that you would like to write some of your own, and I think you should. Just be unique and different. Put your music and your heart out there and then let the people decide what they want to hear.”

     “Thank you, but I don’t really think all of that will happen,” he let out a short half-hearted laugh.

     “You see the world in an unaltered way, Patrick. You see it for what it really is, brokenness and all. Don’t be afraid to show people what you see, the earth in its entirety,” I needed him to understand that this life was more that he saw.

     “No one wants to hear my stupid ideas. I’m more of music nerd type kid and that’s why all the girls like Joe and Pete,” Young Patrick sighed.

     “Are you kidding? You are going to grow up and marry a beautiful woman and have a family, a son. I know you won’t believe me, but girls like you. They _will_ like you,” I remember the time during my solo career, Elisa was worried about all the attention from other girls when we were walking down the streets of whatever city we were in. But I knew that there would never be anyone more perfect for me than her.

     “Really?” Young Patrick’s eyes were wide as I stood up. His eyes couldn’t focus in on me, he didn’t have his glasses. He kept looking up at the fedora on my head.

     “I’m sure of it,” I offered him a hand and helped him up. I pulled him into a hug when I had a disturbing thought. _I am hugging myself._

     “Thank you for everything,” I could feel him smiling.

     “Just don’t hurt yourself again. You are going to have thoughts, just remind yourself that you are never alone. Don’t tell yourself lies,” I told him.

     “I won’t. I’ll be too busy helping Pete,” He pulled back and tried to focus on my face again. “I’m sorry. What’s your name? Who are you?”

     “That doesn’t matter now. All that matters is who you are going to be,” I held the door open for him and let him walk back into the loud room.

     It was exactly how we left it. A huge group of girls still huddled around Pete, and someone had turned the music from loud to louder. I smirked as I tapped Young Patrick’s shoulder.

     “You see that girl over there?” I yelled over the noise. I pointed to a fair skinned girl with dark curly hair.

     “Yeah,” he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Just like I remembered it. She was so beautiful, she made me feel like the only guy in the room.

     “You should go talk to her. She’s a huge fan, not just of your voice, but _you_. She thinks you’re funny. And cute,” I watched him blush as I added the last part.

     “Seriously?” He said with awe. “A girl like _her_?”

     “Go say ‘hi,’” I shoved him forward with my elbow. “Anything you say or do she’ll love.”

     He looked stiff when he walked over to her. His face was white and blank, until he was in front of her and she smiled. They were far enough away so I couldn’t hear them, but I could still see him. I watched his mouth move and eyes sing with joy. She’d laugh anytime he said something.

     “Hey, there you are,” Elisa hugged me from behind the waist. “I’ve been looking for you all over.”

     “Sorry, I was talking to…me.  We did it,” I smiled at her as she kissed my cheek from behind me. “And even better. Look.” I gestured over to Young Patrick who had just asked Young Elisa to dance.

     “Oh my gosh,” Elisa gasped. “Is that me? I knew I had seen this place before.”

     “You are still as beautiful as ever,” I told her. “Both of you are. I will never forget the way you first smiled at me. I was having such a rough night.”

     Young Patrick was guiding Young Elisa across the dance floor as the colored lights in the dark room reflected off of them both. I wasn’t the best dancer, but it was enough to keep the most beautiful girl in the world in my arms. Young Patrick looked up from Young Elisa’s and his feet to look at me. I will never forget the look of shock on his face when he saw my wife behind me.

     “You were so nervous when you first came and talked to me,” Elisa giggled. “All you told me were jokes and funny stories about your band.”

     “Yeah, I never would’ve gotten the courage to go talk to you, if it hadn’t been for the nice man in the hat,” I stopped after my own words. I felt my face go white. “Oh. My. Gosh.”


End file.
